Heading backward

Who creates the jobs we so badly need? There is a myth that the superrich are “job creators,” in House Speaker John Boehner’s phrase. Some are, bless ’em, but most jobs are created by small-business people. Too often the rich are seeking to improve the corporations’ bottom line at the expense of outsourced and downsized jobs. At the little guys’ expense.

Statistics are boring but these are eye-popping. The median salary of CEOs in large corporations 2009-’10 was $10.8 million plus bonuses (NY Times recent report). The average worker’s $752/week salary increase of 0.5 percent was a net decrease when adjusted for inflation. Democrats, largely the workers’ party, are asking the superrich to pay their fair share, after a tax reduction holiday. The growing tendency to balance state budgets on the backs of the working class, e.g. teachers, others, (with Gov. Otter supporting Luna’s attack on teachers’ bargaining rights) is not good for our children.

There is a growing disparity between the rich and the rest of us – a deepening chasm really. It is a replay of the robber baron scenario at the turn of the last century, before unions had won workers’ right to collective bargaining. We are heading backward, and it is dangerous for the nation.

Jean Maryborn

Sandpoint